While researching for these blog posts, I came to the conclusion that human beings will use pretty much anything to try to make sense of the world, and this confirmed it. As the name suggests, this is divination using urine. According to occultopedia.com it was practiced as far back as ancient Rome, where the practice was to look for bubbles. Other methods included examining colour, smell, flow patterns, and even taste.

Occultopedia suggests that urimancy was used by 16th and 17th century witchfinders, who apparently saw no irony in using occult practices to find witches. Iron objects were put in a bottle filled with the urine of the accused. If the corked popped out of the bottle, or the person became ill, they were guilty.

Another distasteful U is umbilicomancy, which is apparently divination by umbilical cord.